Search for Resources
by statefarmsnake
Summary: Shuggazoom City's resources are dwindling after some planets cut trade routes with them and it's up to the Hyperforce to replenish those resources. However, their journey will have more peril than the team hoped for, and an unexpected romance rises from two of the monkeys. Gibarx ahead. ON INDEFINITE HIATUS


Chapter 1

Sparx slowly entered the central hub of the Super Robot. He was a bit tired since he had been up late playing video games with Chiro and didn't quite get the sleep that he wanted.

Antauri had called everyone in for an emergency meeting. Chiro and the rest of the monkeys were already beginning to crowd around him. Sparx stood next to Chiro and whispered, "Do you know what this is about?"

"No idea," Chiro whispered back. "But Antauri made it sound pretty serious."

"Antauri makes a lot of stuff sound pretty serious, kid," Sparx said, chuckling. "That's nothing new."

Sparx brought his attention towards Antauri, who had his arms crossed behind his back as he patiently waited for Nova and Gibson to enter the room.

"It seems that we have a situation on our hands," Antauri said. "Although there are no immediate enemy threats, Shuggazoom City is now encountering a new problem. I have been notified that essential power sources and food supplies are beginning to dwindle and we'll need to replenish those supplies if the city is to keep running for several more centuries."

"Don't we have a trade agreement with other planets for those resources?" Gibson asked. "That's how we've managed to stay afloat for so long when we actually needed the extra tools to repair the city."

"I was getting to that," Antauri said. He pointed up to the front screen, where it was displaying a diagram of nearby planets. Shuggazoom was in the bottom-right corner, while three other planets were in intermittent places in the top-left. "Frerone, our supplier of advanced energy, has recently made a trade agreement with a new planet, Voscone." The planet on the far-left of the screen blinked a couple of times to show where Voscone was. "It is to my understanding that it was a friendly agreement, but… with one term that Voscone insisted on. Cut all ties with Shuggazoom."

"Why would they do that?" Nova asked.

"We contacted them on various occasions to get a direct answer from their leader," Antauri responded. "As we expected, they didn't give one, and threatened to be violent if we continued to pester them. So getting energy from Frerone is not an option until we can figure out a new trade agreement."

"And our food supplies?" Gibson asked.

"Shuggazoom does have some replenishing food supplies that we can utilize," Antauri stated. "However…" Antauri pressed a button, revealing several columns and numbers that most of the monkeys didn't quite understand what they meant. "… Gibson has informed me of his study on the increasing population on Shuggazoom City. Based on our food stock and how quickly it replenishes, we will only have a few years until we won't have enough to sustain this large population."

"So… what's the plan?" Sparx asked, stepping forward a bit.

"We're going to have to do some exploration to find some alternative resources," Antauri said. "Otto, we have ships that aren't attached to the Super Robot, yes?"

"We sure do," Otto said.

"Then we'll have Sparx pilot it through space, along with Otto, Gibson, Nova, and Chiro. I will stay here to make sure that no one invades while you're away. You'll have to be ready to turn around if that happens."

Sparx smiled, placing his hands on his hips. With Skeleton King out of the way, it had been a while since it was necessary for him to fly around in a ship. This was a nice opportunity for him to get back out into space. "Sounds good to me. When do we leave?"

"As soon as possible," Antauri replied. "I suggest you pack your things now and get ready to depart. I have a meeting with the mayor to discuss the plan, so I'll leave you all to your business." Antauri looked around before heading towards the exit of the Super Robot. "Good luck. I'll keep in contact."

Everyone dispersed into their individual rooms to gather their things. Chiro grabbed some additional clothes while Gibson grabbed some of his books and experiments that he wanted to continue while he was away.

Otto and Sparx, with not much to bring, went to one of Otto's auxiliary design sheds where many of his inventions were housed, including the ship that Sparx was going to fly. "She's beautiful, Otto," Sparx said, running his hands against the exterior of the new ship. "I can't wait to fly it."

"I had a lot of time to spend on it, so you'll find a lot of cool stuff inside. The new navigations system will find us those resources for sure!"

"This should be fun," Sparx said to himself. They proceeded to fill the ship with a proper dosage of fuel so that it would last for several weeks. They also began to stock it with food and some weapons to use as a precaution if they ever ran into any trouble.

Nova, Gibson, and Chiro joined Sparx and Otto after they gathered all of their belongings for the trip. "You all ready?" Sparx asked.

They all nodded. "Otto, is there a place to put my stuff?" Chiro asked.

Otto nodded. "Sure, Chiro. There's a room designed just for you." Otto hopped inside of the ship and Chiro and Nova followed closely behind him.

Sparx looked back at Gibson, who was having trouble with carrying all of his lab equipment in a small, black leather bag in his right hand and some fragile glasses in his left hand. Sparx chuckled. "Heh, you didn't really need to bring your entire lab with you, Gibson."

Gibson sighed as he tried to keep everything from toppling out of the bag. "You know how important my experiments are, Sparx. I don't know how long we're going to be away, so I'm being resourceful and bringing a few things along."

"Yeah, I can see that," Sparx said. "Do you need any help? All of your stuff is falling out."

"I'm perfectly capable of keeping it under control," Gibson said. "Besides, this is all very fragile. I wouldn't want t- OH!" A few beakers fell out and shattered on the ground. Gibson wanted to salvage the pieces, but there wasn't much left.

"You're so stubborn," Sparx said, going over to give Gibson some help by getting the rest of the equipment back into the bag.

"You're one to talk," Gibson said before standing up and strapping the bag to his shoulder. "But thank you. Perhaps I should've accepted your help in the first place."

"Let's try to remember that for next time," Sparx said before heading onto the ship.

Gibson rolled his eyes as he stepped onto the ship as well, his gear far more stable than it was. As he stepped on, Otto exited Chiro's room and turned to Gibson. "Oh, Gibson. You might be able to fit your stuff at the end of our sleeping chambers."

"It'll have to do," Gibson said as he went to the back of the ship and dropped off his stuff before returning to the front. "I'm ready to go."

"We are, too," Chiro said, speaking for himself and Nova.

"I'm ready for liftoff, then," Sparx said. He turned to Gibson. "Gibson, I assume you're my co-pilot?"

"Without Antauri, I can probably take on that role," Gibson said, sitting in the chair directly to the right of Sparx.

"Alright, then," Sparx said, powering up the ship. It whirred to life and everyone found a place for them to be stable. "Let's head out." Sparx fired up the engines and the ship flew into the air before launching itself outside of Otto's shed before heading directly out into space.

After about 30 minutes of piloting, Sparx and Gibson finally hopped off of the controls and headed into the center room where Otto and Chiro were playing some kind of card game while Nova watched.

"Antauri gave us coordinates to a few planets that might be viable options for what we're looking for," Gibson explained. "We should be arriving on a planet named Vandana within the hour."

"Hopefully we won't have to spend too much time away from Shuggazoom City," Chiro said, placing a few cards down in front of him, giving a disappointed look at the results.

"You're only saying that because you're about to lose your 5th game," Otto said, laying down his cards and shouting out a boisterous 'Woohoo' while shooting his arms into the air.

"5 games?!" Sparx exclaimed. "Kid, we've only been out here for about 30 minutes. You're letting Otto stomp all over you."

"Perhaps you could use a little help, Chiro," Gibson said. He searched through all of the cards on Otto's side, then on Chiro's side. "From what I can infer, you give up your Aces too easily, which is giving Otto several points."

"Well now Otto has a disadvantage with the genius helping Chiro out," Sparx said, smirking.

"I'm simply giving him pointers," Gibson said. "Nothing wrong with having a refined strategy." Gibson continued to whisper into Chiro's ear, only partial of which Sparx and Otto could hear.

Sparx sat next to Otto. "Don't worry, Otto. I can help you through this."

"Those two won't know what hit them," Otto said, chuckling.

Shortly after, Gibson did the same as Sparx did and sat next to Chiro. Chiro and Otto started another game, though there was a quick turn of events from the very beginning. Chiro was racking up points… and he was doing it quickly.

Almost as if luck and skill weren't involved.

"You're clearly cheating!" Sparx exclaimed, looking at the cards laid out in front of Chiro. "There is no way that simple chance could've gotten you all of those cards from the very beginning."

"Chance is a fickle thing, Sparx," Gibson said. "But I've been watching Chiro this _entire_ time. He isn't of the essence to cheat."

"But you would," Sparx said, pointing at Gibson. "You must've manipulated the deck, or switched out the cards while we weren't looking."

"I haven't touched the cards!" Gibson exclaimed. He smirked. "Can't you consider the fact that we're just now better than the both of you?"

"I'll consider it when I know you both aren't cheating," Sparx said.

"That's something a baby would say," Gibson said. "You're being such an adolescence about this, Sparx."

Sparx looked at Chiro and Otto as he thought of something to say. All they did was blankly stare at him. "Why are you looking at me like that?"

"Well… Gibson hasn't been helping me at all since the game started," Chiro said. "And I would've known if he slipped me any cards. We aren't cheating, Sparx, I swear."

Sparx blinked. He trusted Chiro more than anything. "Oh."

"Perhaps you aren't mature enough for this journey after all, Sparx," Gibson said. He said it somewhat jokingly, but Gibson was mad since he had never been accused of cheating before. Not like this.

Sparx tried to think of a rebuttle, but simply left the room instead.

Gibson let out a heavy sigh. He felt that his comments were a bit… heavy, even if Sparx's comments were worse. "Sorry for interrupting your game. Please resume." He slowly got to his feet and went to his own room where he could get some peace and quiet.

Gibson sat in his room, simply staring at his many experiments. It had been a long day and he knew that he could use some sleep, but he wasn't ready for bed yet.

Gibson's senses quickly perked up as he heard someone enter through the door. He quickly turned his head to see Nova at the entrance.

Nova slowly approached Gibson and said, "It's a bit early for you to be getting in fights with Sparx."

"I'd much rather not get in _any_ fights with him during this trip, but I'm afraid I'm not as lucky as I thought," Gibson said, sighing. "Who told you?"

"Chiro did," Nova said, finding a chair and sitting next to Gibson. "He gave me all of the details and everything."

"He thought I was cheating," Gibson said. "I have all of this knowledge and I'm passing it down to Chiro, and I, Hal Gibson, am accused of cheating. It's almost an insult to my intelligence."

Nova chuckled. "We all know that you're smart, Gibson. Even Sparx… Especially Sparx. But you know Sparx doesn't like to lose, and he tried to figure out what the problem was."

"And you're defending him why?" Gibson asked, closing his eyes.

Nova sighed. "I know what Sparx did to you wasn't that great, but… you called him immature and a baby. I haven't talked to him yet, but I know him pretty well. He's probably not taking it very well."

Gibson turned to Nova, opening his eyes again. "…I didn't truly mean it," he said with a soft voice. "I just needed him to stop with the accusations."

"Then maybe you should tell him that," Nova said, standing up again. "I mean, get an apology out of him too. I can't have him thinking that he's allowed to be an idiot while we're out here."

Gibson chuckled.

"But apologize to him too," Nova said. "You two are friends… in a weird brains versus wit sort of way. And co-pilots if you've forgotten."

He looked up to Nova, smiling at her. "Are you saying that I'm not witty?"

Nova smirked, turning away from him. "Goodnight, Gibson." She exited the room, the door closing behind her.

Gibson turned back to his experiments. He thought back to the cards game, then to what Sparx said, then to what he said himself. "I called him a baby," Gibson whispered to himself. "Saying something like that… is almost childish within itself."


End file.
